Profile Xciter is the LA band that featured George Lynch and Mick Brown who both later went on to join Dokken. It seems that in recent years many artists are raiding their basements, closets or wherever to dig out tapes that might be cleaned up and slapped together to make an album of rarities or demo tracks. Even though the album is called Xciter and 3/4 of the band plays on all eight tracks, it is still like two entirely different bands. The first half is four tracks that were recorded in 1977 and they are surprisingly decent for the time. Maybe a little like Rocka rolla era Judas Priest with some touches of early Van Halen thrown in. Some impressive guitar licks from a young George Lynch. The singer on these tracks was a guy named Greeg Sanford(that’s not a typo on the first name) and quite honestly he’s pretty solid although I never heard of him doing anything else.

The real main attraction from these songs is an early version of “Paris is burning” some five years before Dokken would record it live and slap it on their debut “Breaking the chains”. I am sure Dokken fans would find it very worthwhile. Well, the band didn’t get signed at this point and apparently they changed singers and brought in a female vocalist named Lisa Furspanker (not a typo either). This line-up recorded four songs in 1979 and they make up the second half of this album. George Lynch is a legend. So, when his name is attached or his playing is attached I’m usually pretty interested. This one is not great.

The songs are flat and very rough. Certainly not the kind of demos that would get a record deal (and they didn’t). Although, I really like Dokken: From Conception and found Lynch’s playing on it to be a good snapshot of where his playing was at. This collection does not give you that feel. Go ahead and check this out. Just make sure you take it for what it is.